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Deal Brings Fortune 500 Company To Colorado

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May 27, 2009 6:42 pm US/Mountain

Deal Brings Fortune 500 Company To Colorado

Good Question: Why are they moving here?

Written by Alan Gionet

Reporting
Alan Gionet
DENVER (CBS4) ― Colorado will add another Fortune 500 company after a deal to land DaVita. The El Segundo, Calif.-based company was looking around when it found what it wanted in Colorado. Granted it already had some roots here. A corporate office in Lakewood employs about 200. But there are other reasons it has decided to move.

Chairman and CEO Kent Thiry says he heard what he liked during a discussion with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, even though there may not be much in it for Hick.

"Because it became very clear partway through the conversation that what he was focused on was recruiting DaVita to be headquartered in Colorado and whether that ended up, in particular ended up within a certain boundary that was his own turf, was of very, very secondary importance," said Thiry.

There were months of discussions between DaVita and city and state leaders. The head of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade Don Elliman says they sold a variety of things.

Don't be fooled, it did take financial incentives.

"It's not like we showed up and asked for somebody to write a $50 million check," said Thiry. "But to have some thoughtfully structured incentives sharing in some of the incremental costs."

That includes Colorado's attempts to include incentives in a provision of current house bill 1001 that Elliman says Gov. Bill Ritter intends to sign. They believe it would allow DaVita to get a tax credit of 3.8 percent for the salaries paid over five years to newly added employees in the state.

"Having some of that economic lubricant was essential," said Thiry.

There's also the physical location issue. DaVita has facilities around the country. Denver is more centrally located than California. But so are a lot of cities. Enter a little Colorado sunshine.

"I love to mountain bike, I love to road bike, I love to hike, I love to run, I like backpacking, I like reading," said Thiry.

But he also said he has those things in California. He might not have them in any city competing with Denver. He declined to say which cities didn't pass the test.

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